Europe’s ‘Hamilton Moment’ Is a Flop. That’s Fine.
Federalizing debt was what united the states, but don't expect the same effect from a European Recovery Fund.
Does the EU have a shot?
Photographer: Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Europe is boring. That is a great achievement.
Throughout the 20th century, Europe mass-produced history, most of it disastrous. The two most destructive wars in history began in Europe over obscure questions such as the governance of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the ownership of Gdansk (now in Poland, then the “free city” of Danzig). The most dangerous location in the Cold War was not Cuba but Berlin. If World War III had broken out, Europe would have been its principal battlefield. And let’s not forget that the most dangerous ideologies of the modern age — communism and fascism — were both of European origin.